Relief valve



Oct. 18, 1938. i p B DRANE 2,133,381

RELIEF VALVE Filed Dec. 24, 1936 Philip B. Drane INVENTOR Patented (Jet. 18, 1938 e.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RELIEF VALVE Philip B. Drane, Tulsa, Okla.

Application December 24, 1936, Serial No. 117,641

Claims. (Cl. 27713) The invention relates to relief valves for oil through one of the relief valves, its by--pass and storage tanks, and has for one of its objects to a portion of a tank. provide a relief valve whereby gas from one or Figure 2 is a side elevation of one of the relief more tanks may be conveyed to a point of ignivalves, parts being broken away to beter show the 5 tion remote in relation to the tanks through a structure.

discharge line, and means whereby any of the Figure 3 is a perspective view of a portion of relief valves may be opened for testing purposes. one of the relief valves, showing the latching A further object is to provide a pressure relief means. line having a connection to the relief valve car- Referring to the drawing, numeral I desigried by the tank and forming by-pass means nates the top of an oil storage tank. Gases of 10 through which normal gases within the tanks will various pressure are created within the tanks pass to the pressure relief line and be conveyed to from natural causes or from heat, for instance a point of ignition and consumption. Also means the heat of the sun, and it is desirable to convey whereby when the relief valve is opened for 9.0- t s to a point remote in relation to the tanks cess to the tank, said tank will be automatically and burn the same. To accomplish this result a 15 disconnected or cut off from the pressure relief relief pressure pipe 4 is provided, which pipe is line, thereby preventing flow of gas from other connected to' the relief valve casing 5, which is tanks on the relief line to the opened tank. secured to the upper ends of the tank by means A further object is to provide the relief valve of bolts 6. The relief valve casing 5 extends with an auxiliary valve adapted to be opened by around the tank opening I, as shown in.Figure 1, 20

a vacuum within the tank, for instance during and extends upwardly and is provided with a staan emptying operation, thereby preventing coltionary valve seat 8, which is received within the lapse of the wall of the tank. packing groove 9 of the relief valve plate III. The A further object is to yieldably mount the vacrelief valve plate I0 is normally seated as shown uum relief valve and to proportion the same in Figure 1, and only comes into operation when :35 whereby when the relief valve as a whole is there is a sudden generation of gas pressure withslammed to closed position, the vacuum relief in one Of the tank to Which it is pp and valve will be suddenly unseated and released for then it unseats to the dotted line position shown a hammering operation on its seat for preventing in Figure thereby allowing rapid escape of the sticking of the valve to the seat. gas to the atmosphere until the pressure is less 30 A further object is to provide the vacuum valve than the expansive action of the springs I I, which with means whereby it will be prevented from folare interposed between the spider I2 of the valve lowing the pressure plate valve in its upward plate I0 and the relief valve hood I3. The downmovement, thereby increasing the gas discharge ward movement of the plate In, under the in,-

area upon sudden expansion of gases. fluence of the springs I I, is limited by'the headed 35 A further object is to yieldably mount the rebolt-S l4 Within the hOOd b05888 l5. lief valve' and vacuum relief valve on a hinged T ppl n pertains to v v s f e yp member extending over the tank opening and dis/0105841 in y application, Serial latch means carried by the free end of the hinged d a y 1938- 40 member and adapted to latch the hinged member The hOOd I3 s hingedly Connected at. '5 t0 40 in closed position, for instance after a theft operthe casin 5 a e tes a its free e d n ation. Also to provide the latch means'with poran arm 11 to which is p ta y con ected at 8 a tions adapted to be moved by the operator for a downwardly extending hooked latch wnicn 1S elief valve opening operation, adapted to hook under a member i0, connectmg 4 With the above and other objects in view the the ears earned by the valve caslng 5 as clear invention resides in the combination and arshown in Flgure thereby holfilng the hood rangement of parts as hereinafter set forth, in closed position with the relief Yalve Plate shown in the drawing described and claimed it seated seat The latch is provlded' with an arm 22 adapted to be engaged by the being understood that changes in the precise emt f th f 1 t hi i th device if 50 bodiment of the invention may be made within f g gg fi g Z g gia g s may the scope of what is claimed without departing be engaged by the toe Of/the opegator for an i 2 of the inventmnunlatching operation, for instance when it is den e a ng: sired to open the relief valve for a theft 0 era- FlBure lisaverti'cal longitudinal sectional view tion, which involves the removal of samplgs of the oil for test purposes. Under normal conditions the plate l0 remains seated until there is a rapid or excess pressure which can not be handled through the pipe 4.'

As gasis generated within the tank, it rises upwardly and passes through the relief pipe 4, and in its passage it passes through the discharge ports 24, past the unseated valve 25, which is held open by the weighted end 26 of the valve operating pivoted lever 21, which is provided with arm 28 in the path of the relief valve plate Ill, and which plate maintains the by-pass valve 25 open. The gases from the tank pass into the pressure relief line 4 and through said line to a point of discharge.

The relief valve plate In is provided with a central opening 49, which is normally closed by an inwardly operating vacuum relief valve 50. When the oil is being pumped or discharged from a tank, a vacuum is created withinthe tank, which has the tendency to collapse the walls thereof, inwardly and should the by-pass, from the other connected tanks, be too small to breathe in from the other tanks, the vacuum valve 50 is designed to open from a vacuum overload and to allow an inflow of air through the hood l3 and through the passage 49, in the relief valve plate In. The gases and pressure equalize in all the tanks, by means of the relief pressure pipe 4, which forms an open communication between them all, except when the gager opens the valve, at which time that particular tank is cut off from the rest.

Vacuum relief valve 50 is provided with a stem 5|, which is slidably mounted in a bearing 52 of the spider l2 carried by the plate I0 and extends upwardly, and is normally held in upper position by means of an expansion spring 53 interposed between the spider l2 and anchored in a groove 54 in the upper end of the stem 5|. It will be noted that stem 5| terminates at its upper end adjacent the hood l3, therefore it will be seen that when the relief valve, as a whole, is opened and is slammed after an inspection operation, the springs II will be compressed, and the upper end of the stem 5| will be engaged by the hood l3, which will cause a quick unseating of the vacuum valve 50 and spring actuated engagement of the valve, thereby preventing sticking of the valve 50 and obtaining a hammering action on its seat 55, which. will dislodge any solidified material. Immediately uponthe closing of the relief valve the lever 21 will be rocked by the plate I0, and its weighted arm' 26 will again unseat the by-pass valve 25.

It will be seen that when it is desired to inspect the interior of the tank or take a sample of the contents thereof, it will only be necessary for the operator to release the latch I9, using his tion of gas within the tank or rapid expansion thereof, for instancefrom heat or sun rays, the plate valve I0 unseats, and upon extreme upper movements, for instance to the dotted line position shown in Figure 1, the vacuum plate 50 is unseated, thereby allowing passage of gas through and around the plate l0 and through the passage 49, In this way very nearly the entire volume of gas can be accommodated to the .cross' sectional area of the tank opening.

The invention having been set forth what is claimed as new and useful is:

1. The combination with a pressure actuated relief valve, a casing on which said relief valve is mounted, said relief valve being capable of manual movement away from said casing, of a by-pass valve carried by said casing, said bypass valve being normally opened when said relief valve is in place on the casing and held open by said relief valve and so constructed and arranged that when the relief valve is manually moved from the casing said by-pass valve will be closed.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 including an extension casing carried by the relief casing and in which the by-pass valve is disposed.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1 including an extension casing carried by the relief valve casing and in which the relief valve is disposed, a valve seat in the extension casing and with which the by-pass valve cooperates, a lever rockably mounted between the relief valve and the by-pass valve and normally maintaining the bypass valve open when the relief valve is in place on the casing and allowing the seating of the by-pass valve when the relief valve is manually moved from the casing.

4. The combination with a pressure actuated relief valve closed under normal pressures and manually movable to an open position, of a bypass valve in connection therewith, said by-pass valve being so constructed and arranged as to be normally held open by the relief valve when the relief valve is closed, and as to produce closure of said by-pass valve when the relief valve is manually moved to open position.

5. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the relief valve is hingedly connected to one side of the relief valve casing.

PHILIP B. DRANE. 

